Clearly there is a real fear of “stressing” market conditions ahead of the key quantitative tightening messages in the pipeline from the Fed in September and from the ECB, probably gradually over the rest of the year.

With market rates drifting lower as central bank heads remain tight-lipped over the summer, weighed down by the gravity of excess liquidity and the hunt for yield in a low-volatility environment, the pressure lies overwhelmingly on forthcoming policy announcements in September to guide market direction for the rest of the year. This means several critical months for the markets ahead."

Actually, a more accurate description than rates being weighed down is to say that bond prices have been floating on, and buoyed up by, excess liquidity. But other than that what she said makes sense-- and is something we've been noting on this Board. High liquidity levels help keep bids under multiple markets.

I would bet that the big boys are buying gasoline cargos in mid ocean with a third of US refining either shutting down or thinking about it. The refiners will be sure to use this to jam up prices going into Labor Day. Then when everybody is running again, well anyone want to bet that they don't overproduce?

Sorry, I can't seem to get the times right. ECB President Draghi speaks at 1 Mountain or 3 Eastern time. So an hour and a half of nothing, then who knows for sure. With the experts calling for Chair Yellen's speech to be a nothingburger we certainly got some movement so we will see.

Stuart Varney Fox Business Channel reruns from the net, interviewing a texas based oil analyst (stranded in New York).Corpus Christi area shut downs about 3% of national refining, wholesale gas up 15 cents already.Houston area is 13% of capacity. If it floods extensively and damages equipment some refiners could be down for a couple of months. Also flooding will cut off electricity slowing the restart of undamaged facilities.Pipelines from Huston send gasoline all over the south east so if their pumps are damaged they could be affected.Others are saying flooding inland could shut down shale operators in the Eagle Ford and Permian basins for as long as a couple of months. Some operators are already evacuating non-critical personnel to higher ground.

When trading opens on Sunday night there could be some big moves, certainly higher than normal volume. Or we could get lucky and the forecasters could be wrong, but I kinda doubt that.

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